When I tell people that some of my doll heads
are made of leather
they pull a face,
like I've made some kind of
monstrous mask of rawhide.
I can understand that
'leather head'
doesn't seem like a
pleasant description of a doll.
Amethyst is a cloth doll
whose head is made of
stiffened and moulded leather.
I actually made her about seven years ago,
and she came back specially
for a photo shoot.
I started making dolls
with leather heads
because I wanted to make cloth dolls
with three dimensional profiles
and realistic features.
I'd tried felt
and I'd tried cloth over paper mache
but neither of these had been satisfactory.
Then I saw some moulded leather masks at a craft fair.
Remember those, way back in the 90's?
I had to guess at how they were made.
Fortunately for me, my first attempt,
using thin leather soaked
in diluted PVA (white) glue
worked well enough.
The leather was draped over a cheap bisque doll head,
and pushed and moulded into shape.
I found I could influence the expression of the doll,
depending on how I squeezed and shaped
the leather while it was drying.
Usually the leather dries to a warm yellow.
Like Bess, here.
Amethyst, however, is painted.
And she's painted because
I buggered up the original face.
Originally, she was going to be a boy Elf.
But I had real problems
getting his face to look masculine.
(Even for an Elf.)
He got cute ears, though.
So I made him into a girl
and she belongs to my dear
sister-in-law, Cherie
Amethyst has a gown of vintage green satin
and lilac silk,
with a dark green velveteen bodice.
She has little green leather ballet shoes
made over a tiny last.
Green glass leaves hang from her chain belt,
and she wears
an enameled and jeweled headpiece
and over-sized brooch to match.
The jewellery was the original inspiration
for the design of the dress.
She even has a green leather dagger sheath to match her shoes.
With removable dagger, obviously.
I didn't know how well the
leather heads were going to last,
when I first made them.
But Hubby has a little boy doll
I made over ten years ago,
and it's exactly the shape
and the colour is as bright
as the day it was made.
And I'd make more
and put them on Etsy,
I just still don't know how to describe a
leather-headed doll
without it sounding a bit
creepy...
Talking of creepy,
this is my Christmas door wreath.
"And then let any man explain to me,
if he can,
how it happened that Scrooge,
having his key in the lock of the door,
saw in the knocker,
without its undergoing any intermediate process of change
-- not a knocker,
but Marley's face..
